Saturday, May 8, 2010

My bike was stolen in Bangalore on a night of April when I went to my hometown. Totally 12 bikes are there where I parked mine, but I am LUCKY person to lose bike. Still I didn’t know why the thief took my 6 year old bike leaving 2 months old ones which were parked with mine. On next day I went to my nearest police station and informed them regarding this.

The first thing I learnt here is in every police station there is ONLY ONE person with whom we had to deal regarding these stolen/theft cases.

The police whom I met told that he will file an FIR if I want it for insurance or else he will just take a complaint. I too agreed for this as I had to search for my insurance papers. So I just gave details regarding mine & my bike and left that place.

After a few days I was informed that my bike was found but in an another police station.

I neither given complaint nor filed FIR upto now but it was found., kudos to the investigation abilities ofpolice.

I was asked to bring FIR copy first. So I went to the police station where I informed regarding this and got an FIR.

The cost I got incurred is RS.200 that too the police didn’t asked/insisted directly, (seems he’s a contract employee or a good one) but based on his facial feelings I myself given him the amount.

Then I took the FIR to the police station where my bike was there.

Here also everybody pointed me to only one person who dealt with this particular issue (stolen goods).

I expected he will ask for some money and will give my bike immediately. But he told me an (long) actual procedure to get my own bike back from them. I am not sure about the exact procedure but the procedure tentatively is as follows:

First they will file some case and inform the court that they arrested some thief and recovered this number of bikes (there are many bikes recovered with mine).

Then a complaint number (he told a name for this) is generated.

Then I had to take this number to the court and file an appeal to them that the police had recovered an vehicle with its registration/engine/chassis number and the bike is mine for which I had show proofs like my original RC book etc. They told for this I had to hire a lawyer. Then the court will give us a “Release Order” which we had to submit in the police station to get our bike release from them.

(I heard we can get a lawyer(for 1000rs but not sure about the actual cost) who will complete the process and get us the “Releasing Order”. May be the police people will have those lawyer numbers )

The police told me about this procedure and told me to come next week as they are dealing with “laptop theft/recovery” cases in that week and gave me his number for further communication.

In the next week I called that police daily but he told they are still dealing with laptop cases and bike cases are not still taken up.

After one week he told me to come on next Wednesday and he will tell me the actual process/ formalities and I can get my bike on that next day. So I went to the police station on next Wednesday but he was on leave, and every other police man told he is the point of contact for these stolen cases. His cell was switched off and it took me another 5 days to get him on cell. He told me to come on next Monday with an “Indemnity Bond” paper.

On next Monday he simply took an printed statement on that bond with my signature and gave my bike back :-)

The entire printed matter was in Kannada which I couldn't understood a single line but kept the signature.

It took 1800 bucks to get my bike here and the police are very frank in these matters.

I got my bike exactly after one month I lost it and it took exactly 14 days to take it out of police station.

The doubt is when there is an easy process like this why did the police insisted on a long process (through court) which will take a long time!!! Although we went through court then also the cost will be almost same where we had to more for lawyer and less for police

P.S: But it took 6000 bucks to repair the bike and bring it into normal condition. The battery & petrol were taken off. Seems nothing left to peel from it.

Everybody says I am lucky to get my bike back. But if the bike was not found I may have saved a 8000 bucks of expenses and may get around 15k-20k as insurance claim (but it will take time). with around 20k-25k I can buy a better bike then mine.

NOW THE DILEMMA : IS I AM UNLUCKY TO LOSE MY BIKE OR LUCKY TO GET MY BIKE BACK OR IT WAS WRITTEN (fate) THAT I HAD TO REVOLVE AROUND TWO POLICE STATIONS FOR ONE MONTH???